Please remember that Haggai is a contemporary of the prophet Zechariah. These two prophets were called of God to exhort the Jewish people to rebuild the temple after their return from the Babylonian captivity. Haggai was somewhat of an "in your face" type of prophet, more so than was Zechariah.

This older prophet was growing impatient with the Jews, his people, as they were taking so long to finish up the work of rebuilding the temple, the permanent worship center for the Jewish people. The Jews had been disobedient and the prophet had been led by the Lord to chastise them verbally and exhort them to finish up the building of the house of the Lord.

As we come to verse 10, and through 19, we see that the returning Jewish people were starting to become obedient and starting to get more serious about doing as the Lord had commanded. Haggai was revealing the word of the Lord directly to the people. They could see that the Lord had chastened them for not obeying, verse 17.

Haggai said, verses 18 and 19, "consider" that when you become obedient there will be "seed in the barn", the vine, fig tree, and pomegranate will bring forth fruit. From that day, the day of their obedience, from that day they would be blessed of the Lord.

Verses 20-23, as we will see in a future devotional, states that the ultimate fulfillment of Haggai's prophecy would be the destruction of the Gentile world powers and the building of the temple, Messiah's Temple, where Messiah Jesus will rule and reign forever.

Thus, our passage is also applicable to the end times as the Jewish people return to the land of their forefathers and become obedient to the Lord. The blessings will then be poured out on them.

As in the days of Haggai, the Jews are today coming back into the land and have allowed their own comforts to be of greater priority than the building of the temple for the Messiah, Jesus Christ. The Bible does call for a Temple in Jerusalem in the last days, and in fact, into the future and forever.

There is a remnant of Jews who are working towards a rebuilding of the temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, but the vast majority and especially the Israeli government have no desire to rebuild the temple. This subject is so controversial that the politicians of Israel never mention it and deny any efforts to rebuild the temple when confronted by the Moslem world.

This caveat, as we conclude our devotional. The preparations for the next temple are ready for the building of a temple right now in Jerusalem with one small problem. The ones preparing to build the next temple are not following the instructions for Messiah's Temple as found inEzekiel 40-46.

The next temple to be built in Jerusalem will be the "Tribulation Temple" that will be desecrated by Antichrist, II Thessalonians 2:4. That temple is ready to be built on the Temple Mount right now, but the Rapture must happen before they start construction. Thus the Rapture could happen at any moment - keep looking up.

Prayer Thot: Thank You, Lord, that we live in a day that seems to be near the time of the Rapture. Help me to live in light of that fact.